A Mother and Father's desperate need to see their children
Sydney & Reilly
My name is Rhadell. I am 35 years old. Two years ago my husband and I were addicted to Meth and my mother was granted temporary custody of our two girls, Reilly and Sydney. Today we have been clean for 2 years and 17days and even though the courts only required us to be clean for 1 year, we have not seen our children once in this time, not even a visit or a phone call. Because this is a civil case and CPS is not involved, it has been a very difficult court process for us. We filed a motion with the Grays Harbor County Superior Court in August of 2006. Since then, our trial has been cancelled six times. In June of 2007 my husband went to Alaska to make it possible to retain an attorney in Montesano for $2500.00. Since June of last year we have been waiting for our attorney to help us. She has only contacted us three times in the last year first was to tell us she postponed the trial again, next was in January of this year when she told us that my mother was thinking about agreeing to some sort of supervised visits, but they were working on it. The last time I heard from my attorney was last thursday, March 27th 2008, I was expecting some good news about a visit, instead it was a letter informing me that she was withdrawing from our case due to medical issues. I was devestated. She said her accountant would be in touch if we had any money at all left over. And that she could refer us to another attorney if we wished. There is no way we could afford another attorney. We don't know what to do we were so close to visits and because my mother and her attorney won't budge we have to go back and start over with the courts. We work very hard everyday to become better people from all of this it is the only thing we can do to make up for the past. The requirements from the courts were to be clean for one year, have gainful employment, and adequate housing. We have done this and more. My husband has been with the same surveying company for almost a year now. I am a full time student at Grays Harbor College, one quarter awqy from my accounting certificate. We submitt hair folicle samples every 90 days to prove being clean. My mother has a restraining order against us, but I recently wrote a letter to her in hopes of a reconciliation, she has not answered. She and I have never been close, but I do not want that to be the case with me and my girls. We she took the girls she offered to keep them for awhile until we could get on our feet. She has not let us see them since. My heart aches every day that I cannot do anything about this. We need representation right away, we are trying to raise enough money for another attorney. My husband only makes $13.00 an hour and like I said I am a full time student, so we have no savings at this time. If anyone out there has any ideas or other avenues that we have not exhausted already, or can help us in any way, we would be forever grateful. We just want to see our girls and for them to know their parents again.crhovda@gmail.com